


Dreamcatcher, New York

by loosenoodlepoodledoodle



Series: Romantic Feels [8]
Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Horror, Jealousy, LGBTQ Themes, New York, Nightmares, Possibly Unrequited Love, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:41:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23769418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loosenoodlepoodledoodle/pseuds/loosenoodlepoodledoodle
Summary: The long-awaited return of KCON New York has been great for Dreamcatcher. Before going home, Yoohyeon and Jiu invite Gahyeon along for a short getaway, far from the others.But what happens next, no one expects...
Relationships: Kim Minji | JiU/Kim Yoohyeon, Kim Minji | JiU/Lee Gahyeon, Kim Minji| JiU/Kim Yoohyeon/Lee Gahyeon, Kim Yoohyeon/Lee Gahyeon
Series: Romantic Feels [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672399
Kudos: 13





	Dreamcatcher, New York

**Author's Note:**

> I am far too lazy to go back and capitalize the "u" in Jiu's name. Sorry!

“Hey, I think we’re not far from Sleepy Hollow.”

Yoohyeon looks at me through the rearview mirror while Jiu turns her head. I suddenly regret speaking up.

“What’s that?” asks Jiu.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” I try to take it back. “Just some Americana I read about.”

“Isn’t it like a national fable?” suggests Yoohyeon. I perk up at her knowledgeable response.

“Yeah, they tell it to schoolchildren all across the country.”

She nods, and focuses her attention back on the highway. Jiu looks thoughtful for a moment, then turns around. I wonder if I should tell them the story, but I kind of figure Yoohyeon must already know it, and Jiu probably doesn’t care. Not that I can remember how it goes, anyway. I was just sort of skimming when I read it.

Besides, I’m kind of angry at Jiu at the moment.

We’ve been on the road for over an hour, and the traffic is still heavy. We’re probably lucky not to have hit any gridlock. We have precious little time as it is for our excursion. I’m still surprised they invited me to come along with them. The others are staying in the city, and I have the backseat all to myself. I’m short enough that I can almost feel comfortable with all this space to stretch out in.

The vibrations of the car as it speeds along up the Hudson River Valley make me drowsy, but I can’t fall asleep like this. Instead, I think back to the previous few days. KCON New York was amazing this year. We were still outshone by LOONA, of course, but we had a respectable showing nonetheless. And our fans are nearly as fiercely loyal. With Handong back, Dreamcatcher can hardly be better poised for the future. In fact, I should be happy.

But I’m not.

Yesterday, we were taking the 7 Train back from a place called Flushing. There was a famous restaurant there that the other two had wanted to try, and they let the _maknae_ tag along. Why, I have no idea. They must really like me or something. I also think it’s funny that we traveled halfway around the world to eat Korean food in America, but whatever. Anyway, it was at dinner that they broached the idea of this trip, and of course I said yes. I was so happy about it, too. Then I caught them looking at each other, all starry-eyed, while the train was weaving its way through the glassy skyscrapers of Long Island City.

Then Jiu put her hand on Yoohyeon. Not in a gratuitous way, but it was still meaningful. You know how it is. Don’t you?

So that’s why I’m mad at Jiu. Childish jealousy. Which really burns, because I like her, too.

We stop a couple of times, but finally arrive at our rented cottage. Yoohyeon is the one who found the place, and all I know about the region is its name: the Adirondacks.

I dare not try to pronounce it.

The cottage is just one story, no cellar. There’s a combined kitchen and dining room, a living room, a small bathroom, and two bedrooms. The larger of the two has a queen-sized bed, and they take it without discussion. I do well hiding my hurts, and unpack my bag. We’ll only be here two nights, so I finish quickly. I notice an intriguing bookshelf in the corner, but I’m called out to the living room before I can peruse it.

“What are you in the mood for, Gahyeon?” asks Jiu.

I shrug. “I could go for just about anything.”

They’re craving pizza, and since we’re not in the wilderness, there are plenty of obliging parlors in town. After thirty minutes of stomachs growling, pure deliciousness arrives, although Yoohyeon embarrasses herself. When she pays the guy, she asks for change back, and he looks at her funny. Then she realizes she has to tip him since we’re in America.

What a weird custom.

We don’t leave any leftovers for tomorrow, and not ten minutes after we’ve cleared everything away, the other two are ready for bed. I’m kind of feeling a food coma coming on too, but then my jealousy does its fell work, and I can’t sleep.

I lie there, listening, wondering what they’re up to next door. Thankfully, they seemingly are truly asleep.

I sit up and turn on a lamp. Maybe reading something in English will overwhelm me, and I’ll fall unconscious in no time. The books on the shelf look rather old. One has the name “ _Adirondacks_ ” on it, so I grab it. _Natives of the Adirondacks_ proves to be the full title. I dive in. Later, I will come to regret it.

There are a lot more words and names in there that I don’t get, ones like “ _orogeny_ ,” “ _Algonquin_ ,” and “ _Iroquois_.” We don’t really learn much about American history in Korea, and why would we? It’s not like the Americans learn much of anything about us, apart from the war. But I’m kind of disturbed. Once it was thought that this region was an unspoiled wilderness, and it kind of was when the Europeans came. But long before that, there were many people in the mountains, and then most of them died. The book blames “ _smallpox_ ,” and mentions something called “ _The Beaver Wars_.” Jesus, it’s just too much.

I put the book back, no closer to slumber. I think about the weight of the past bearing down on the present in silence. In Korea, you can find old graves all over the place, little grassy mounds tucked into the hillsides. The whole country is basically a sprawling cemetery, or a necropolis. What if everyone who had ever lived around here had graves like that? Would there even be space left for the living?

Then for some dumb reason I try to remember _The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow_. It’s so weird, that being a folk tale. I give myself a hell of a fright when I notice a terrifying picture on the spine of another one of the books. For a moment I wonder if something had been reading my mind and placed it there just for me, but then I realize there’s something wrong with it. The headless figure in black is not holding a jack-o-lantern. He’s holding something much worse.

I pull the offending tome off the shelf, and it’s not what I thought it would be. The title is _Legends of the Irish_ , and the cover image is even more gruesome. An old-fashioned carriage, parts of which appear to be made of human bone, conveys the hideous specter I saw on the spine. How he can drive the thing when both hands are needed for the reins is a mystery to me. Then I get a good look at his face in his lap and shiver.

He’s grinning ear to ear, but no real mouth could do it like that. And his eyes are following me, like in one of those uncanny paintings you learn to fear as a child. Naturally, I open the book to find out what it’s called. “ _덜러한_ ,” I whisper, no doubt butchering the unfamiliar word. Then I chuck the book under my bed so I don’t need to see it staring at me in the dark. I turn off the lamp, and fall asleep before I can start imagining him skulking in the corner of the room.

I wake up, gasping for breath, but I can’t remember exactly what I was dreaming. I only feel a lingering sense of dread. The sun’s up already, and I hear them in the kitchen. I join them for French toast, and it’s so good that the memory of last night is drowned in maple syrup.

We drive to a huge nearby park and go hiking. There are a few other people here, mostly foreigners I think, then I berate myself. They’re all Americans (probably) and I’m the foreign one to them.

It compounds my sense of isolation.

We find a less-beaten path, and I follow Yoohyeon and Jiu up it without objection. The forest grows thicker, and we meet no one else. Even the sound of cars from the road somewhere below us fades to silence.

I begin to tarry behind the others. I don’t know why I’m doing it, not really, but it seems I have a need for some alone time right now. They haven’t been paying attention to me, so when they’re almost out of sight, I sit down on a small boulder and wait for the sounds of their footfalls to disappear.

I take a deep breath, smelling the forest air, and exhale slowly, making a sigh like the wind. The forest responds with a real gust, rustling and rattling and whatnot. It makes me feel cold, but not uncomfortable. Or, I should say, I don’t mind feeling uncomfortably chilly for the moment.

I’m high up enough that I ought to be able to see the local town, but the trees don’t allow it. They obscure everything, and if it weren’t for the path and the slope it climbs, the world would look the same in every direction. I try to imagine disappearing into it, never being seen again.

The wind dies, and I manage a glimpse of my nightmare from last night. Dark setting, contrasting with…something. At first I think it must be from that old book, but it’s the wrong shape. And why do I feel such a sense of irony all of a sudden? I mean, aside from our band’s namesake.

I hear them coming back for me, though they don’t call my name. I wait there for them, staring straight ahead. Jiu crosses my line of sight and sits down next to me. Yoohyeon stands off to the side, since there’s no room for her on the boulder. Unless she draped herself across our laps.

Jiu takes my hand in hers. She feels so warm and soft. “Are you alright, Gahyeon?” she asks.

“Yeah. Totally. I just hung back to, you know, experience the woods. Full immersion, you know?”

She nods, but she frowns. Yoohyeon looks worried, and I cannot meet her eyes.

“Do you want to go back now?” she says.

“No…no, of course not! We just got here.”

“Let’s keep going, then. Together.”

Jiu helps me to my feet, and holds my arm until I finally make myself twist out of it. She feels good, but she’s not the one I want. Unfortunately, Yoohyeon misinterprets me and assumes I want to be left untouched.

I have to stifle a sigh at this.

We continue for a while, but there’s no conversation, not anymore. Clouds veil the sun, and we decide to head back to the car. We eat lunch at a fast food joint, one that is not common in Seoul, and we’re pleasantly surprised. Then we explore some quaint little museums in town, although the only one that sticks with me is a war museum. I can’t help but compare what happened here back then over two hundred years ago to Korea at the time. This place was intimately connected to events in the wider world, while my homeland resolutely tried to shut the world out. I can’t imagine how different my life would be if my country had succeeded at this into the present.

Eventually hunger rolls around again, and we bring some takeout back to the cottage. We turn on the television while we eat, and some show catches Yoohyeon’s eye. My English isn’t good enough to understand it, and neither is Jiu’s, for that matter, but Yoohyeon is getting really into it so the two of us suffer through the lack of subtitles. We both begin to grow bored, but Jiu has Yoohyeon to tend to, and I have nothing.

“I’m going to go to bed,” I say, getting up off the sofa.

“Really?” says Yoohyeon. I still can’t look at her.

“Yeah. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” the two of them say sheepishly. I don’t know why they’d be upset. Aren’t I giving them their privacy?

When I get to my room I turn on the main light and close the door behind me. As I change into my pajamas, I notice the gap on the bookshelf. That’s right, I shoved it under the bed—

It’s not there. How perplexing. Did somebody else come in and take it? Who would do that? Maybe Yoohyeon would, I don’t think their bedroom has a bookshelf. But then, when would she have had the opportunity today? And she couldn’t have known where to look, either.

I decide to discard the mystery, switching from the main light to the lamp by the bed itself. I reach under the pillow to pull back the covers, and my fingers hit something solid.

Is this some kind of sick joke?

The book is there. The figure sits in his carriage, staring up at me. He’s strangely familiar, too, and it makes me uneasy. We’ve definitely met before, and I think I know why I was feeling dread when I woke up. And then that sense of irony returns.

What on earth is going on?

Suddenly I don’t want to fall asleep, but I can’t bring myself to go back out there with them. Why, I can’t fathom. Feeling the pain from my unrequited love would surely be better than the nightmares that await me when my eyes shut. But then, I start to feel curious. What did happen while I slept last night?

I split the difference, crawling back into bed but attempting to read once more. Part of me thinks this is wrong, that some terrible is afoot here, but I can’t stop myself.

I’ll never know later on if I was the one who turned the lamp off.

***

It’s dark, and I can’t move. But I feel that I _am_ moving, even though I’m lying down, bound. I hear the sounds of what seems to be a wagon, then warm hands are setting me free. My eyes adjust, and it’s Jiu.

“What’s going on?” I try to say, but Jiu clamps her hand around my mouth. She points over the side of the wagon, and I see a figure on its knees, in some kind of cowl or robe. Jiu puts her index finger to her lips, then points to her ear. I understand; we do not want the figure to notice us and call out an alarm. You would think she’d mind the wagon, though.

We pass her by, and Jiu relaxes a little. I take a look around, and recognize the death carriage we’re riding in. But we’re not being driven by the Dullahan. Instead, it’s Yoohyeon.

“Where are we?” I whisper, but I can answer my own question. I can see we’re in the forest again, but only it’s at night and the path has widened to accommodate us. Yoohyeon says, quietly, over her shoulder, “We’re rescuing you. Sit tight and you’ll be alright.”

I settle back into the coffin. It’s uncomfortable, but there’s nowhere else back here for me to go. Jiu has barely any room beside it herself, and immediately she crawls in on top of me.

“Sorry,” she whispers, but she feels so good I can’t complain. I wish it was Yoohyeon instead, but Yoohyeon is the only one of us who knows how to drive, so of course she has to be up front. After a while I can’t help myself, and I run my hand up and down Jiu’s length. She reciprocates.

Something spooks the horses, and we lurch about. I hear a person walk swiftly towards us, and before we can do anything at all, a woman with a terrible face peers over the side of the carriage at us and screams.

Yoohyeon urges the horses onward, but it’s too late. I hear the rider behind us, gaining. He matches our speed, and Jiu cries out, seeing him for the first time. He lets go of his reins, raising his head high with one hand, and reaching out to the carriage with the other. His grin chills me to the bone.

Yoohyeon senses the danger, twisting around in her seat to whip him. He draws his own in response, a sickening instrument of human vertebrae, but just before he can harm my love something changes within me. I sit up, reaching out to stop him in the only way I can. I slip my hand into the hole at the base of his skull, looping my fingers up inside, over his stinking, rotted tongue. In his surprise he opens his mouth, allowing me to get a solid grip on his jaw. I pull, hard, and take his head from his hand. His disgusting teeth sink into my flesh, but I fling him away with all my might. I see him cartwheel into the wake of the carriage, and his body careens wildly out of control. The whip still finds me before he dissolves into the murk. I see stars.

My friends’ voices call my name, but I return to the coffin in agony, clutching my wounded hand and temple. Soon we stop, and they’re helping me out, helping me down, telling me I’m safe now, that they’ll do what it takes to save me. But how, when we’re still on the path in the woods?

It’s when I’m looking back and forth between the two of them that I see it. Gossamer strands glistening in the unlight of this hell. It’s being woven before my eyes, by a massive spider. But somehow, I don’t feel scared of her. What she’s doing isn’t a gimmick; it’s the real thing. She seals us off, and the Dullahan appears, and he can do nothing to cross it. He sits there on his horse, menacingly, then canters off to haunt some other nightmare.

“Gahyeon?” pleads Yoohyeon. “Gahyeon?”

I want to stay with them. I want to ask about the spider. Where is she from? New York? I didn’t read about her in the Adirondacks book. As I drift off, I feel something from her. No, she’s not. She’s from further west, over the lakes.

“Gahyeon? Don’t go!” begs Jiu.

I feel sad for her. For the spider, I mean. Here, she’s all but forgotten, but I’m only going to wake up.

***

As I come to my senses, I realize someone is knocking on my bedroom door.

“Gahyeon? Are you okay?” It’s Yoohyeon. “We heard you crying in your sleep.”

That’s news to me. I turn on the lamp and tell her to open the door.

“I fell asleep reading this book. It must have given me a nightmare.”

I show it to her and her eyes widen at the cover. I set it aside, and she extends her hand.

“Do you want to crawl in with us?”

Oh God yes. “Um, sure. That sounds good.” I follow her meekly to their room. She explains briefly to Jiu what happened as I curl up between them.

“Do you remember any of it?” asks Jiu.

Vividly. “I don’t want to talk about it now. Not so soon after.”

“Alright.”

They snuggle against me, forming a cocoon. I metastasize inside.

“Why did you invite me here with you?”

It takes Yoohyeon a second to collect her thoughts.

“We like you, and when we thought of taking this trip, we wanted you to come with us.”

“But why? Why me? Don’t you like Dami and the others?”

Jiu slides her hand around my belly. She’s practically spooning me.

“We don’t feel the same way about the others,” she says.

I look into Yoohyeon’s eyes. Jiu feels so warm against my back. I want to kiss Yoohyeon, I want to kiss them both. Why aren’t they eager to kiss me?

“Do you still want to hear about my nightmare?”

They answer me in the affirmative.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I read one of the books in the other room. It had a headless horseman in it. Then I fell asleep and dreamt about it.”

There’s a moment of silence.

“Is that it?” asks Jiu.

“No…there was something else strange, about a spider’s web.”

At this, Yoohyeon reacts strongly. “Was it warding off the horseman for you?”

I blink at her. “How did you know?” Surely she didn’t have the same dream.

“I was looking up where dreamcatchers came from the other day. They were actually spider webs.”

_There’s the irony,_ I think, but maybe I’m misusing the term. “Is it a local belief?”

“No. I think it came from the Ojibwe. Like, in Canada.”

_West, over the lakes._

“What? What is it?”

I squirm in Jiu’s embrace. The coincidence is just too weird. Instead, I change the subject.

“How do you really feel about me?”

Yoohyeon looks nervous. She sits up, and Jiu lets go of me and does the same. The two of them upright tower over me lying down. Jiu leaves her hand pressed against my belly, and Yoohyeon places hers against my chest, where she can feel my heart beat.

“I told you; we really like you.”

“There’s that word again,” I say with disdain. Then I feel guilty.

Yoohyeon’s lips are quivering. She’s afraid to say it. Jiu moves her hand from my belly to her shoulder, to give her strength. Suddenly I have had enough of waiting.

“I love you.” I sit up and put my hands around Yoohyeon’s waist. I pull her back down on top of me, whisper it again, then kiss her. She kisses back, but still she cannot speak. Jiu descends, and things get confusing for a bit. But I keep my focus, and soon it happens.

“I love you, Gahyeon. I’m sorry I couldn’t say it sooner.”

“That’s okay. And Jiu, I love you, too.”

I don’t feel quite the same way for her as I do Yoohyeon, but if I have to share her with her then so be it. Jiu says it and kisses me, then I watch as they kiss each other. I feel a pang of jealousy still, but it’s like a fast diminishing echo. I set it aside and join their kiss.

We don’t try having sex. We’re too tired, and it’s awfully late, and also, it’d be too awkward considering how nervous we’ve been around each other lately. But as I lay there between them, I feel a sense of contentedness that I’ve never known before. It’s too bad that tomorrow night, we have to leave New York.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd been meaning to write this one for a while, but I just couldn't get a feel for a proper theme. I wanted to play around with the band name, and try some sort of cultural appropriation angle. If I just blurted it out, though, it wouldn't work. I'm not convinced it works even now though, so there's that. Oh well.
> 
> Here's what I know about the origins of dreamcatchers: like Yoohyeon says in the story, it's an Ojibwe tradition called the Spider's Web. It doesn't just stop bad dreams, it's for all bad things. The version I read held that one day, Spider felt pity for a mother and her child, and gave them her web to shield them. The name "dreamcatcher" isn't what the Ojibwe called it. Apparently some white lady coined that term, after she had interviewed one or more members of the tribe for, I guess, anthropological reasons? Anyway, that term spread outside the tribe, becoming popular, and monetized, and now the original story has been just about ruined for the Ojibwe themselves. I couldn't use Spider or anybody else as a character, it wouldn't have felt right. So you get just the fleeting glimpse Gahyeon gets as an outsider to Old North America.
> 
> I had zero qualms against using Irish folk legends...
> 
> Oh, and before I lived in Ohio, I was actually born in Flushing. I used to go back and visit once in a while. That's why I gave the location a cameo. I haven't been there in like nine years, though. My favorite part of riding the 7 train is that area around Queensboro Plaza. In the years since I last rode it, that place has become so much more built up. It's weird to see pictures of it now.


End file.
